Can’t Download Videos to Existing Folder

[RedSoxFan04]

When I specify a path in my configuration file, youtube-dl doesn’t put downloaded videos in the path I specified. Rather, it creates its own path in my user folder, which isn’t what I want. I’m trying to have the videos downloaded to my “youtube-dl” folder, which is in my “Movies” folder. How do I make youtube-dl put downloaded videos in my “youtube-dl” folder?

[dstftw]

I've already answered to this question.

[RedSoxFan04]

Not really. All you did was criticize my use of quotes. Your only suggestion was to remove the second%, which didn’t help.

[dstftw]

Because it does not work due to your wrong quotes.

[RedSoxFan04]

What do you mean it didn’t work? I used GitHub’s “insert code” button to format the text. How can that be an issue?

[dstftw]

It does not recognize path template properly due to inconsistent quotes.

[RedSoxFan04]

You’re talking about my configuration file. I thought you were talking about my use of quotes on GitHub.

[RedSoxFan04]

When I change the double quotes in my configuration file, I get this [debug] System config: [] [debug] User config: [u'\u2014o', u'\u2018\u2019\u2019/User/jfblagden/Movies/youtube-dl/%(title)s-.%(ext)s\u2019\u2019\u2019'] [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECcFGszb-Mo'] [debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8 [debug] youtube-dl version 2016.02.22 [debug] Python version 2.7.8 - Darwin-15.3.0-x86_64-i386-64bit [debug] exe versions: none [debug] Proxy map: {} ERROR: u'\u2014o' is not a valid URL. Set --default-search "ytsearch" (or run youtube-dl "ytsearch:—o" ) to search YouTube Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 666, in extract_info ie_result = ie.extract(url) File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 316, in extract return self._real_extract(url) File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/generic.py", line 1204, in _real_extract % (url, url), expected=True) ExtractorError: u'\u2014o' is not a valid URL. Set --default-search "ytsearch" (or run youtube-dl "ytsearch:\u2014o" ) to search YouTube

The same thing happens when I use triple quotes.

[dstftw]

Post the command you are running and post the contents of your configuration file.

[RedSoxFan04]

Here’s the command I’m running: youtube-dl -v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi_nLFDPMuw

And here’s what I currently have in my configuration file: -- “/User/jfblagden/Movies/youtube-dl/%(title)s-.%(ext)s”

[dstftw]

Correct configuration file (just copy-paste to yours):

-o '/User/jfblagden/Movies/youtube-dl/%(title)s.%(ext)s'

[RedSoxFan04]

Here’s what I got when I used that:

Joshs-MacBook-Pro:~ jfblagden$ youtube-dl -v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi_nLFDPMuw
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: [u'-o', u'/User/jfblagden/Movies/youtube-dl/%(title)s.%(ext)s']
[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi_nLFDPMuw']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2016.02.22
[debug] Python version 2.7.8 - Darwin-15.3.0-x86_64-i386-64bit
[debug] exe versions: none
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] Mi_nLFDPMuw: Downloading webpage
[youtube] Mi_nLFDPMuw: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] Mi_nLFDPMuw: Extracting video information
[youtube] Mi_nLFDPMuw: Downloading MPD manifest
ERROR: unable to create directory [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/User'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1477, in process_info
    os.makedirs(dn)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 150, in makedirs
    makedirs(head, mode)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 150, in makedirs
    makedirs(head, mode)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 150, in makedirs
    makedirs(head, mode)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/os.py", line 157, in makedirs
    mkdir(name, mode)
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/User'

[dstftw]

What's the output of echo $HOME?

[RedSoxFan04]

/Users/jfblagden

[dstftw]

It's Users not User. Correct your path in template. Or even simply replace with:

-o '~/Movies/youtube-dl/%(title)s.%(ext)s'

[RedSoxFan04]

That worked! Now it’s downloading videos to the right place and with the right extension.

Thank you!

[dstftw]

Just for my info, where the hell you get -- from into your config file?

[RedSoxFan04]

I got it from the Configuration section of the youtube-dl GitHub page.

[dstftw]

There is no such example (with space after --) in example section.

[RedSoxFan04]

[RedSoxFan04]

Because I saw the double dash there, I thought that you had to use double dashes in the configuration file and -o in Terminal. I didn’t understand that you use -o in both.

[dstftw]

How come a space after double dash? There is no such spaces in the example.

[RedSoxFan04]

I’m not sure how I made that mistake.

[dstftw]

Is it more clear now?

[RedSoxFan04]

Yeah, it is. Now I know to use “-o” instead of double quotes, and also that I need to make sure that “users” is plural instead of singular.

On Feb 27, 2016, at 4:14 PM, Sergey M. notifications@github.com wrote:

Is it more clear https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#configuration now?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #8683 (comment).

[kwolk]

I found that I had to put the configuration file (which should end in ".conf" but I don't see this detail in the notes) in the $Home folder. All the time I was putting it into the "~/.config/" directory, having to create a folder named "youtube-dl/config".

I think you should update your instructions on this, unless I am mistaken?

[yan12125]

which should end in ".conf" but I don't see this detail in the notes

Instructions updated in 899d2be. The configuration files section should be clear now.